What the UK Election Means

I’ve reached the ripe old age of 40 which I guess is probably half way to retirement on current trends and I think this is the most important and uncertain election of my life. Thought the Conservatives will certainly get the most votes, the actual outcome is far from clear but the consequences of the possible results are clear and very serious.

I am hoping for a Conservative majority tomorrow night. Though Cameron has taken the party to the centre, they are the by far soundest party on cutting public spending rather than raising taxes which is the only hope if we are to get out of the mess we have been left in.

For those of you that have taken the time to look at the UK political scene and thought Cameron not to your liking, please bear in mind that we have a political system where a small but steady majority in one house gives the government near-complete power. In your terms imagine a democratic president with 67% of the vote sin both houses locked in for five years.

To make things worse if the Conservatives don’t get in, the Liberals are most likely to try and form an alliance with the Labour Party. The Liberal party in the UK is a strange thing. It has a glorious and noble history, but with the rise of Labour in the last century it has been left an inconsistent mixture of genuinely liberal policies with some social-democratic elements and more than a hint of greenery. When you see their policies you get flashes of sound economics with too many moments of lunacy arguably to be expected in any party that doesn’t have to worry about the consequences of ending up in government. (This is as opposed to the German Free Democrats who have embraced both sides of classical liberalism and are the natural home of the free-market minded voter).

If tomorrow’s result is indecisive, I fear the likely result is a Liberal-Labour coalition and I fear that born out of weakness the Liberals are likely to put electoral reform above policy and Labour will look to buy the votes of their public sector base while taxing the hell out of anyone they can label as rich. The consequences are frankly terrifying and I would imagine that the likely downgrading of UK debt and spiral towards default would have an impact far beyond our shores.